Lightning-arrester.



W. E. PHELPS.

LIGHTNING ARRESTER.

APPLIGATION FILED FEB. 16, 1910.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

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Patented Aug. 28, 1910 W. E. PHELPS. LIGHTNING ARRESTER. APPLICATION FILED r213. 16, 1910. 968,405.

ATTORNEYS WILLIAM E. PHELPS, 0F COLEBROOK, OHIO.

LIGHTNING-ARRESTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

Application filed February 16, 1910. Serial No. 544,245.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVILLIAM E. PHELPS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Colebrook, in the county of Ashta-- hula and State of Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Lightning-Arrester, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to lightning arresters, my more particular purpose being to provide a kind of lightning arrester suitable for auxiliary use in connection with other lightning arresters and with various parts generally employed in telephone exchanges and the like.

More particularly stated, I seek to pro duce a lightning arrester in which a line wire or its equivalent is movable at will into and out of engagement with various conducting members, for the purpose of quickly grounding or ungrounding all of these members by a single movement of a hand lever or the like.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both the figures.

Figure 1 is a view partly in elevation and partly broken away, showing my improved lightning arrester as applied to a telephone switch board, and Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow.

A board is shown at 3 and is provided with supporting strips 4:, 5, carrying binding posts 6 and conducting plates 7.

At 8 is a block integral with the board 3. Upon this block are a number of metallic bases 9, the latter carrying binding posts 9 which are connected by wires 10 with other binding posts 7 carried by the plates 7. Mounted upon the bases 9 are spring clips 11 and disposed opposite these spring clips are other spring clips 12. From each spring clip 11 to its mating spring clip 12 extends a fuse 13 which, for this purpose, is provided at its ends with contact heads 13.

is connected with and practically forms a common ground plate for all of these lightning arresters. The strip 17 is connected by a wire 18 with a binding post 19 and extending from the latter are wires 20, 21.

At 22 is a ground plate, preferably of sheet copper. A discarded kitchen vessel made of copper will answer the purpose of a ground plate.

At 24: is a hand switch provided with switch blades 25, 26. This switch is provided with binding posts to which are connected wires 27, 28, these two wires being joined with the wires 20, 21, as indicated in Fig. 1, so that the wire 21 acts as a ground wire for the three wires 20, 27, 28. A wire 17 connects the ground plate 17 with the wires 27, 28.

The switch 24- is further provided with binding posts 29, 30 and connected with the latter are wires 31, 32. These wires are bare and may be made of non-corrosive heatresisting metal, such as German silver, or of sections of fusible wire, as desired. These wires 31, 32 are connected with binding posts 33, 31 which I use for the purpose of lessening the mechanical strain of these wires upon the binding posts 29, 30. Two switch levers 35, 36 are disposed adjacent to clips 37, 38, these clips and levers being mounted upon a cross bar 39 which also supports the switch 21.

By raising the lever 35 the wire 31 is slackened and pressed upward out of engagement with the metallic bases 9. Similarly when the lever 36 is raised, the wire 32 is liberated --from its engagement with the bases 14:. By

depressing both levers, both wires 31, 32 are brought into engagement with the groups of bases with which they are respectively associated, and upon the upward movement of either of these levers the corresponding wire 31 or 32 is instantly carried out of engagement with the bases with which it is associated. The operation of my device is as follows: Normally the levers 35, 36 are both raised. The fuses 13 and lightning arresters 15 then act as they do under ordinary condi tions. Suppose, however, that a storm comes up and that there is imminent danger that instruments connected with the wires 16 may be damaged. To be sure, if the fuses 13 work properly, there may be no danger, but a defective fuse might enable the lightning to damage one or more instruments which are usually very delicate. In a case of this kind, the operator presses down the two levers 35, 36. The bases 9 are thus grounded through the following circuit: bases 9, Wire 31, binding post 29, switch blade 25, wires 27, 21 to ground plate 22. The bases 14 of the lightning arresters are also grounded through the following circuit: bases 14, wire 32, binding post 30, switch blade 26, wires 28, 21, and ground plate 22. This is inde pendent of the grounding of the ground plate 17 in the usual manner through the wire 17 and wires 27, 28 to wire 21, thence to ground plate 22.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

In a switch for lightning arresters or the like, the combination of a plurality of conducting members disposed adjacent to each other, a wire extending across said conductors and secured to a fastening, a ground connection for said Wire, and a lever connected with said Wire for the purpose of drawing the same tight in order to force it into temporary engagement with said conducting members.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM E. PHELPS.

lVitnesses S. H. FRANTZ, K. D. BUNKER. 

